This invention relates generally to a gauge for determining the maximum width of especially pulpwood loaded on a railway vehicle. More particularly, the gauge is a hand-held device having an upstanding elongated boom with transversely extending feet for slidingly bearing against the side sills of the railway vehicle. A terminal end of the feet are spaced a predetermined fixed distance from the boom such that any over-extent of the pulpwood beyond such distance from each of the side sills is gauged as the gauge is slid along each of the sills to thereby determine the maximum width of the load on the car.
Pulpwood railway cars are typically loaded with pulpwood from opposite sides of the car for transport to a papermaking mill to be ground into pulp. The pulpwood car is similar to a flatbed car except that the pulpwood supporting surface of the car slopes inwardly and downwardly from opposite sides of the car toward a centerline crease extending longitudinally of the car. The logs are cut to length for stacking from opposite sides of the car and typically extend beyond the car side sills.
The interchange rules of the American Association of Railroads prescribe a maximum width of load for pulpwood cars not to exceed 51/2 feet from the centerline of the car for an 11 foot maximum width of the load.
Presently, the maximum loadwidth is arbitrarily and inexactly determined by the workman by visual inspection or by using a tape measure or the like to determine the maximum overhang of the logs extending beyond the side sills of the car so as to approximate the 51/2 foot limit from the car centerline. When a log or logs are found to exceed this limit, they are either "bumped up" by inwardly shifting the log, or the log or logs are sawed off to maintain the prescribed loadwidth.